Rain
by shuusuke
Summary: Before you embark upon a journey of Revenge, you should first dig two graves. Confucius


Chapter 1 – Tender is the Night

"Sometimes it is harder to deprive oneself of a pain than of a pleasure." F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his book Tender is the Night.

--

People tell me that souls travel from one world to the other, constantly, at birth, at death. Maybe I'd find her there, eventually. Yet, something held me back. The giant looming gate in front dared me to enter, to run away from everything, to give it all up. Painful memories drifted in and out of my consciousness.

_Kisuke walked into the room, "Captain, I have some news for you." _

"_Captain? I was just appointed to this position yesterday," I responded, "that title has no worth until I establish it. Besides, you're a captain too, Urahara. You probably already forgot that didn't you? Being stuck in that retarded test facility of yours."_

_I jumped up from my seat, choosing instead to sit on the polished desk, littered with remnants of random reports. _

"_So….? What is this news?"_

_He averted his eyes from my direction, choosing instead to stare obliquely into some other corner of the room. This was not like the brash old friend of yesterday, something bad had happened. _

"_Well…" he began, searching for some way to ease his way into speaking the truth, "I went out into Rukongai to confirm some reports. You've heard of the Hollowificiation Case, its happening throughout Rukongai, people dieing from some mysterious ailment, some of them are turning into Hollows, others die before their bodies can morph."_

_I yawned, stretching my hands behind my back, attempting in vain to touch the ground, backwards. Sighing, I muttered, "Yeah, I've heard of it. Again, what does this have to do with me?" _

"_Not that it's good news, it's horrible!" I added as an afterthought._

_Slowly, he continued, "Well, you see…"_

Not yet, spoke a tiny voice, deep within the reaches of my mind, interrupting my thoughts. Perhaps my soul like my body had had enough of these painful memories, these severed ties that still connected us. Rain began its gentle downpour, washing away my tears, my worries, my sorrow.

Regardless, the memory, like Kisuke, continued.

"… _Rain, she was one of them, the victims. "_

…_Rain… that was her name. _

"_She died in the transformation phase. I tried to treat her, when I got there, but too late."_

_Kisuke later told me my eyes lost all their trace of life. In them, he only saw feral anger, and a thirst, a plain, egregious thirst for vindication. Gaunt, pale feelings stared out at him, he said, the most visible of which was wrath. I attempted to lunge at him, my hands quivering with the instinct to kill someone, somebody, for revenge._

"_YOU! YOU….. HOW COULD YOU?" _

_Flashing across Kisuke, I moved through the headquarters of the division, heading for the morgue. Kisuke moved in front of me, matching me in speed whilst moving agilely with shunpo backwards._

"_Stop! Please, you don't want to see her as she is now," he yelled, trying in vain to halt me._

"_I didn't want to do this, but if I have to, STOP! Bakudo 63. Chainlike Desert," Kisuke spoke, wrapping me from head to toe in chains._

"_You can't see her, because, they are going to have Rain burned. The central 46 have decreed that the dead victims are to be burned in hopes of preventing an epidemic._

"_You can't see her, 'period'. This state that you're in, people will ridicule you. Those gossip-mongers will eat you up and spit you out like an old rotten carcass. And besides, you are a captain… whether you like it… or not, and no captain in their right mind would run into their wife's cremation enraged."_

"_I did not ask for her to be cremated… now… release me," I spoke, my voice no more than a coarse whisper, as he broke the binding spell. Tears ran across my face, streaming to no known end. _

…_Rain, I whispered to her. They're going to have you burned, at the stake, like a heretic. What did you ever do to them, Rain? Why?!..._

_Rage welled up inside my chest, inside there, Rain still lived. Her love still blossomed, her delicate voice still rang, her twinkling eyes still shone, and her spirit still thrived._

_The ground beneath me changed, the day became night, Rain stood next me._

"_Hey, you," she breathed across the air, "guess what?"_

"_What? You're in love with me?" I remarked, a snide grin working its way onto my face._

_A golden ring glittered against her pearl skin, a diamond embedded into it reflected the shine of my wife. She smiled, a faint smile, enticing yet fragile. The air around me changed, from quiet and solemn to vibrant yet somehow soothing._

_Her voice awoke me yet again from the trance, "Nope. You're going to have to make a better guess before I tell you. It's no fun if I just spit it out," she teased, playfully. _

_Glimmering within her eyes was the truth, and I silently bored into her gaze, hoping to gain some insight into what she knew. Maybe it would work, this staring game of mine. It had worked before. Is it possible for eyes to dance? From just a look, a gentle stare? Her rich brown eyes enveloped mine, beginning that dance which only two souls can partake. _

"_Okay, okay," she whispered, not wanting to continue this dance just yet, "I tell you. Well…" she ended._

"_What?" I mumbled, impatiently, waiting to continue the dance which she had so roughly stopped._

"_I'm having a child…" she whispered, almost too silently to be true._

"_Sometimes, it is madness that makes us who we are." The strange thought drifted across my blank mind, disturbing any thing with Rain I had going._

And there, I collapsed, in full view of the gate, under a small grove of cherry trees. The blossoms fell on my shoulder, the rain too. Vague echoes of the imaginary ranting against my wife going on in the central chamber played themselves out in my mind. Distant voices echoed in the background…

"Isn't that the 10th Division Captain?"

"Yeah, he's been… well… crazy since his wife's death."

"He should get on with his life."

…A black butterfly appeared, darker than hell itself. With it, came a new voice, the voice of responsibility, the voice of my boss, The General. I tried to swat away the butterfly, shed my responsibilities, forget about these duties. It was nothing more than drunken stupor.

"EMERGENCY MEETING… ALL CAPTAINS MEET IN THE 1ST DIVISION HEADQUARTERS…I REPEAT… ALL CAPTAINS… EMERGENCY MEETING…"

Dragging my feet away from the gate, from her, from the past, I approached the extremities. Glancing back one last time at the red and golden gate, embellished with ritualistic markings and huge walls, I turned to discourage any thoughts of going to the human world. Throwing an ephemeral glance to the direction of where I was expected, I instead chose to go home, to let it all be.

Flashing past the gates that guarded Seireitei and beyond the tall walls that restricted me from my cold, lonely bed, I reminisced about the first time I'd brought her inside here, many years ago, when she was but a young woman.

_Her strawberry blonde hair brushed against my shoulder, her deep amber eyes acquiescing to my hold of her. She had laughed often, then. Sneaking past the guards and into the beautiful courtyard of the Kuchiki family had been child's play. Gripping her hand silently, we wandered through the endless gardens, stopping to pick a rose every now and then. The moon shone brightly over the garden then, perhaps her aura lent it a hand. Often, she sprinted ahead of me, eager to discover the new sights yet to behold. The faint perfume lingered behind, enchanting me into chasing behind her. Her eyes sparkled brighter than the myriad of stars shining above, her grace rivaled that of the night fairies of old. _

"_Are you coming?" She questioned, running off yet again into the grove._

"_Mhm," I replied, flash stepping in front of her, "Boo!" _

"_Same old, same old, huh? You've become a Lieutenant of the Tenth Division, and you still chase after me, running in these fields."_

"_Some things never change," I whispered into her ear, letting her wrap her soothing arms around me, an embrace which I could've held for eternity. _

_A murmur came back, "Don't let me go."_

"_Even the demons of hell couldn't take you from me." Instinctively, I pulled her closer, letting her fears drain away, love did that sometimes._

_She gazed tenderly into my eyes after pulling away from our embrace, her gentle look delving into me. "I love you," she spoke, ever so softly, like a drizzle of rain. _

Her soft voice echoed past my ears, drowning out the torrent. Past the barrier now, I looked back upon the so called Court of Pure Souls. Her delicate laughter reverberated inside my skull; someone or something had stolen her from me. Perhaps they were demons from hell, perhaps a hollow, perhaps a mad experiment gone wrong, or perhaps a cruel soul. But… I had lost her… Rain… against my promise; I had lost my heart.

A crude sign read The Mansion in the outskirts of Rukongai. It was, in some ways, a Mansion, a very big house. The roof stood in shambles, the shutters creaking, and the stairs rumbling as he climbed up into the common room. Rain had made her home in this boarding house, ever since she had come into Soul Society, and thus, I too, after marriage, lived here with her.

The Mansion resembled nothing so much as a dilapidated motel, but Rain loved it here. She'd said that in the mornings, the fresh smell of coffee seeping in from the neighbors and the croaking of the frogs outside our small apartment had become second nature to her. Perhaps we'd lived here because of the control she exercised over me. But the bed would be empty, desolate, barren, for the third night. Flowers would stand consolingly outside the door, but they were simply empty tokens of respect for the death of the wife of a captain. I could hear faint bickering coming from distant corners of the house, Rain had said they helped her go to sleep, a lullaby for her, I'd thought.

My wet Captain's uniform trudged across the ground, evidently, enough to wake the bell boy. He'd been one of the first to offer his condolences, a close friend of Rain since the beginning.

"Captain…?" He asked wearily, eyes but half open.

"Yeah. Go back to sleep, it's just me. Good Night Iki," I muttered, walking up another flight of steps, all too aware that three in the morning was perhaps too late to wish someone good night.

I took a right off of the stairway, walking into the hall that housed the lounge for the second floor. Sauntering through the empty hallways, illuminated sporadically by lamps, I read silently the numbers of the doors ahead of me. 23…24…25…26…27. I opened the door with a twist of her key. I'd been using hers, hoping to carry whatever remained of Rain with me. The gentle aroma of her being ran through my nose, weird how I could still smell her, after a gap of three days. I tore off my uniform, letting it lie in a disheveled pile in the corner of the room.

Weariness ran a hand through my body, draining my energy instantaneously. Falling onto the bed, I fell asleep, the sleep of a tortured mind. At random intervals, I awoke, searching the room for a non-existent Rain. My hands would sweep across the bed, my body rise like a doll's, and my eyes would scavenge the room. Perhaps they were all dreams.

"Wake Up!" shouted a voice, as it entered my room, the door standing open behind it.

My hands mechanically rubbed my eyes, scattering the sand. "What… Who… Why…" I began, my voice weakened by the tortures of sleep. A clock stood in the corner, its hands pointed to fifteen past four.

"It's me," spoke the voice of Kisuke Urahara.

Behind him walked Yoruichi Shihoun, her face covered slightly by a brown scarf. She and he took a seat in the empty wicker chairs by the side. Snapping his fingers, he lit the lamp with unspoken Kido. A green bucket hat hid his blonde hair, his starched uniform had traces of blood. Wrinkles lay in every corner, the white interrupted by random black dots and mud. He wearily looked at me, his eyes like those I had seen deliver the news.

"Anything special, Mr. Green Hat, must be the new fad, huh?" I joked, the atmosphere did naught but become heavier.

"I know who killed her," he began.

My eyes lit up, searching his face for any indication.

Yoruichi walked around the room, gently sweeping open the curtains to make sure they had not been followed. Kisuke sighed, looking thoughtfully into the corner, a picture of Rain stood there.

"Yes," he continued, acknowledging this, "but I can't do anything about it. You remember that call, don't you? Well, lucky for you, you weren't there. The 9th division squad was ambushed and transformed into hollows, as were Shinji and the squad he took with him to back them up. Totally, 4 Captains and 4 Lieutenants, including my own, Hiyori were hollowfied. I attempted to save them, much like I did for her," -pointing to Rain- "with a device I created. The central 46 caught me midway, and Tessai, the Kido Captain, and I were framed and convicted. However, the dashing maiden in brown scampering around the room right now came to our rescue."

The maiden flashed a sly grin.

"As of now, I have stabilized their bodies, after their hollows were pushed down, somewhere into the deep dark depths of their soul. Tessai and they have left for the real world, they're gone, and Yoruichi and I are the only ones left."

Yoruichi smiled, "It was the least we could do, to tell you before we left." She and Rain had been friends after our marriage.

"Who?" I whispered, dangerous thoughts drifting across my mind.

Kisuke stood up, making a move to leave. Taking a deep breath, he turned, facing me head on.

Now, slowly, I could see the twinkle being reborn in his eyes. Perhaps his strength, his resolve had come back. But then again, I doubt that Kisuke had ever lost that resolve.

He sighed, adding suspense to the already thick air. "Well… you see… It's happened due to someone amongst our own ranks … Aizen Sosuke, Kaname Tosen, and Gin Ichimaru, they've been responsible for all these deaths. Aizen's been experimenting with hollowification, he must have done so with Rain. And be weary, Aizen's shikai, it's full ability is hypnosis. He's taken advantage of all of us. He had those gentlemen, and I use this term very very lightly, down at the chamber thinking that he'd been in Seireitei the whole time. Do what you can."

He turned, to leave the room; Yoruichi followed suit.

At the last moment he stopped abruptly, "Maybe I should've delivered this news on that day… but it might've just made it worse…Before she died, while I was attempting to save her, she gave me a message. I assume it was for you…Even all the demons of hell can't take me from you…"

Stunned, I muttered, "What will you do?"

"Urahara's Shop, Karakura Town, be sure to stop by for all your Shinigami related needs." A smile reflected off of the mirror Rain had placed erratically in the corner. A card fluttered down into my hand, the address and the owner engraved in illegible script.

Yoruichi stopped one last time, perhaps she thought she'd never see the room again.

"Be sure to get him, Isshin."

--

Disclaimer:

I own none of the characters in this fanfic from the Bleach Manga, I do however take at least partial claim to Rain, she is based on part from a couple of other characters that came to mind.

So…. What'd you think? Nice? Be sure to tell me about it in a review, and I'll be sure to get the next chapter up A.S.A.P.

WHoo Hoo… Maybe the characters were a bit out of it, but just imagine the death of your loved one… a startling concept indeed.

Notes:

"Sometimes it is madness that makes us who we are" comes from Batman.

I love starting chapters with quotes, so please bare it.


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